Flat lay photography at home with a phone

What makes a flat lay

A flat lay is a photo taken straight down at a set of things laid out on a surface: a breakfast table, an outfit, the contents of a bag, a product with its packaging. Instagram made the style popular, and shops use it because it shows every item clearly in one frame.

It looks casual, but it is one of the least forgiving angles there is. Digital Photography School puts the rule simply: the camera’s sensor and the surface must be perfectly parallel. Everything else in this guide follows from that.

Keep the phone parallel to the table

Tilt the phone even a little and the layout distorts. The far edge of the table shrinks, the near edge spreads, and a square board turns into a trapezoid. That is keystoning, the same distortion that makes buildings lean back in a photo taken from the street.

Three things help:

1. Turn on the level. Go to Settings › Camera and turn on Grid and Level (Apple’s camera guide). When you point the phone straight down, a pair of crosshairs appears in the middle of the screen. Tilt until they sit on top of each other and the phone is flat.
2. Centre yourself over the layout. Stand over the middle of the arrangement, not at the edge of the table reaching over it. A stool or a step gives you the height. Expert Photography also suggests resting the phone on the edge of a higher surface with only the camera over the scene. Hold on to it.
3. Fix small slips afterwards. The Photos editor can correct horizontal and vertical perspective. It works best on a small tilt, and it crops the edges to do it.

Step back and use 2x

Wide lenses bend straight lines near the edges of the frame, and the closer you are, the worse it gets. The flat-lay photographer Heather Barnes told Adobe she works with a 50 mm lens for this reason. Wider lenses distort the edges, and a 100 mm puts her too close.

On an iPhone with a 2x setting, that is roughly where 2x sits. Switch to 2x and raise the phone until the layout fits. You need more height, but the edges stay true and tall items such as a bottle or a glass lean out less. If your iPhone has no 2x, stay at 1x and leave room to crop. Avoid 0.5x.

Light from the side

The best flat-lay light is soft daylight from a window to one side of the table.

• Side light gives shape. DPS recommends light coming in at about 45 degrees, which casts small shadows that show the texture of linen, bread or leather. Light from straight overhead flattens everything.
• Diffuse direct sun. If the sun hits the table, hang a sheer white curtain or baking paper over the window, or wait for a cloudy hour. Shopify’s flat-lay guide prefers overcast days for this reason: direct sun throws hard shadows.
• Bounce the shadow side. Stand a white card or a sheet of foam board on the side away from the window to lift the shadows. Take it away, or use a dark card, when you want more mood.
• Watch your own shadow. You are standing over the light. Lean back from the window side, or move the table so the window is on your left or right, not behind you.
• Turn off the ceiling light. Mixing warm room light with daylight gives the photo two colours of light.

Choose a surface

The surface is the background of every flat lay, so choose it as carefully as the props.

• Neutral to start: white, grey or black, or a wooden board. Kraft paper, a sheet of foam board and hardware-store countertop samples all work and cost little.
• Texture adds depth: linen, a tea towel, baking paper or a slate board under the main items.
• Colour on purpose: DPS suggests a complementary colour, such as a blue background behind something yellow, when the subject needs to stand out.
• Layer it: a board on a cloth on a table, or a tray on a board. Adobe’s photographers stack surfaces for depth that a single flat background lacks.

Build from the hero outward

Arrange a flat lay the way a stylist does: one thing at a time, from the most important.

1. Place the hero first. It is the thing you are selling or showing, and it should be the biggest in the frame. Put it on a thirds crossing or in the centre.
2. Add supporting items around it. Props should complement the hero, not compete with it. A cup next to a pastry, a belt next to jeans.
3. Give the layout a shape. Adobe lists the shapes stylists use: a C, a V, an S-curve, a triangle, a circle or parallel lines. Choose one and let the props follow it.
4. Use odd numbers and overlaps. Three or five supporting pieces read more naturally than four (the rule of odds explains why). Let some items overlap a little, such as a napkin under a plate, so the layout has depth.
5. Leave space. Keep part of the surface empty for text, or for when Instagram or a shop crops the photo square.
6. Let things leave the frame. A board or a sleeve running off the edge suggests a bigger table. Check every edge before you shoot.
7. Take things away. Start with too much and remove one prop at a time. If an item has no reason to be there, it goes.

Keep the colours few. A tight palette, two or three colours plus neutrals, makes a flat lay look composed rather than busy.

Knolling: the tidy grid

Knolling is laying related objects out at parallel lines and right angles in a neat grid. The word comes from Frank Gehry’s furniture workshop in 1987. A janitor there, Andrew Kromelow, squared the tools away at the end of each day, and the right angles reminded people of Knoll furniture. The artist Tom Sachs later made “Always Be Knolling” a studio rule (Make: tells the story).

For a shop, knolling suits sets: a skincare kit, a tool kit, the contents of a bundle. The rules are simple:

• Everything square to the frame and to each other.
• Even gaps between items, and a clear margin around the whole set.
• Group by kind, size or colour.
• Shoot it centred and level. A knolled layout is the one flat lay that wants perfect symmetry.